Bot. Bull. Acad. Sin. (1995) 36: 253-257
Yang and Compton— The genus Cimicifuga in Taiwan
Additional remarks on Ranunculaceae in Taiwan (4) The genus Cimicifuga L. ex Wernisch.
T.Y. Aleck Yang1,3 and James A. Compton2
1 Division of Collection and Research, National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China
2Department of Botany, Plant Science Laboratory, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire,
RG6 2AS, England, U.K.
(Received April 10, 1995; Accepted August 1, 1995)
Abstract. The present work is a taxonomic study of Cimicifuga L. ex Wernisch. (Ranunculaceae) in Taiwan. The morphological and palynological characters of one species, C. simplex (DC.) Wormsk. ex Turcz., are presented. The taxonomic description and a distribution map of this taxon in Taiwan are given.
Keywords: Cimicifuga; Cimicifuga simplex; Morphology; Palynology; Ranunculaceae; Taiwan; Taxonomy.
Introduction
There are approximately eighteen species of Cimicifuga worldwide. The genus Cimicifuga was not recorded in the account of Ranunculaceae in the Flora of Taiwan (Liu and Hsieh, 1976). Ou (1976) reported the presence of Cimicifuga simplex on Taiwan, based on a herbarium sheet collected as early as 1925 by Japanese botanists from Nantou Hsien. In 1984, the first author of the present paper re-collected C. simplex from Taichung Hsien. Subsequently, a few other collections were made of this apparently rare species from the central mountain ranges of this island (see below). In our paper, we present morphological and palynological studies and document the distribution of C. simplex in Taiwan. A line drawing is provided to facilitate recognition of this species. Nomenclature of this species follows the treatment of Compton and Jury (1995).
Materials and Methods
The materials were taken from living plants and herbarium collections. Scanning electron photomicrographs were made with a Bausch & Lomb Nanolab 2100 (National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung) and a Hitachi S2300 (Tunghai University, Taichung).
Morphological Characters
Three largest mature leaflets of living specimens collected in the wild were chosen for examination. Herbarium specimens or dehydrated fresh materials were coated with gold for SEM study. The leaf surface, stomatal complex, trichomes, and carpels were observed and described.
Palynological Characters
The anthers were dissected from fresh flowers with a pair of fine forceps and a mounted needle. They were then placed on double-sided cellotape on a stub under a dissecting microscope. The anther fragments were drawn to one side, leaving the pollen grains together in the middle. The pollen grains were coated with gold for about 3 min, then SEM observations were made at magnifications from 3,000 to 15,000.
Results and Discussion
Morphological Characters
The surfaces of the leaflets on the adaxial side can be defined as striate (Figure 1A and B) and smooth (Figure 1C) on the abaxial side. The shape of the stomatal complexes is elliptic and the size is 35.2_44.8 µm long and 29.3_32.8 µm wide. The outer stomatal rim is raised with fine, radiating striations (Figure 1C). The trichomes are linear, filiform simple hairs, with both long and short types, and the surface of the trichomes is finely striate (Figure 1D).
The stomatal complexes are anomocytic in the Ranunculaceae—there are no distinct subsidiary cells—and the genus Cimicifuga is hypostomatic, with a high percentage of stomata occurring on the abaxial surface. Sometimes, stomata can be found in reproductive organs, such as the carpel, but there they are smaller (Figure 1E).
Palynological Characters
Grains are tricolpate (Figure 1F and G); the size in polar view is 26.8_29.2 µm long, and in equatorial view is 26.9_27.8 µm long; the apocolpum diameter is 8.4_10.6 µm and colpus width is 3.2_4.5 µm; the colpus end is acute; the colpus membrane is spinulose. The value of
3Corresponding author.
